Housing Finance (Hansard, 14 January 1976)

§ 6. Mr. Gould
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects the review of housing finance to be completed.

§ Mr. Crosland
In the spring or early summer of this year.

§ Mr. Gould
Will my right hon. Friend accept that one consequence of the virtual monopoly that building societies have in financing house purchase is that many people have no possibility of buying their own homes? Should we not get away from the social divisiveness of the present policy and follow the example of Norway and New Zealand where almost everybody can buy a home by means of a low-interest loan from the State bank? Is not the reduction in the amount of money to be made available for local authority mortgages a retrograde step?

§ Mr. Crosland
There are later Question on specific aspects of this matter. On the more general point, the housing finance review to which my hon. Friend referred will contain a strong and long section on the whole subject of the supply of mortgages and whether our present arrangements, institutional and financial, are adequate to the tasks that we face.

§ Mr. Tebbit
Will the right hon. Gentleman consider persuading the Prime Minister to put the Government Chief Whip in charge of this review, as his ideas on housing policy seem to be so refreshingly different from those of his colleagues? He still wants to turn the policy upside down and, as he said—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Member is making a statement.

§ Mr. Tebbit
Did the Secretary of State hear the broadcast by the Government 372 Chief Whip in which he advocated selling council houses? If so, may we please have some finance for that?

§ Mr. Crosland
I listen to the statements of my colleagues on the radio with as much attention as I can, devoting as much time as I can to them. I regret that I did not hear that speech, but I cannot accept the implication of the hon. Gentleman's question—that all members of this Government do not speak in utter harmony and unison on all occasions.